Remarks: The current colony on Stuart was established during the early stages of the Principality of Caledon's expansion into space. However, Stuart has always been something of a mystery because of the stories concerning a previous, failed colony on the world established during the first wave of colonization of the Caledon region by humans from the Terran Confederation.

Records of this first settlement are scanty. It is believed, however, that some 3,000 colonists came to Stuart from Caledon (Reaver's Deep 1815) to found a new world. They sent back glowing reports of the lush climate and primitive beauty of the new planet, but a supply ship which orbited several months later could not establish radio contact or locate a landing beacon. It set down where the colony had been built, but found no sign of the people - only the buildings they had left behind. A fragmentary log tape was found which told of a virulent plague, and a plan by survivors to trek to a new site where plague-carrying animals did not flourish. But no trace of the colony was found.

Stuart was left alone after that, considered a "jinx" by some, and a potential plague planet by others. Eventually, in -219, it was resettled, and superior medical technology prevented a recurrence of the plagues which troubled the first colony. The original town, at the mouth of the Great River and the edge of the Tangleglade Jungle, is preserved to this day, restored as a historical landmark. Questions about the fate of the first colony are still common, and archaeologists and other scholars occasionally seek answers at the colony site, but little hope now remains of unearthing the truth.

Of course, stories have circulated from time to time of worthwhile leads or even complete solutions to the mystery. It is variously held that Reavers captured the surviving colonists and sold them into slavery, that an intelligent native race exists in the deep jungle which wiped out the settlers, or that the colony survived, and lives to this day, in some paradise deep in the heart of the jungle. None of the stories is supported by proof, but it is undeniably true that explorers in the jungle have reported strange noises, glimpses of unknown beings, and other enigmas which are often claimed as proof for either of the latter two theories.